Chimera
by Kaist
Summary: Long before the Sechs Empire, there was Mei. And a few others. Oneshot.


The young girl in the flower-patterned day dress laughed in delight as her older brother showed her a game with the pebbles that lay in their small garden, bouncing them across the path in an intricate pattern. He handed a rock to her. "Try it," he said, a rare smile on his face.

"Yuri!" their mother called, voice stern. She had called for him once already and he had not answered. The siblings looked up at the porch- the girl somewhat guilty, for Yuri often did this for her when he was supposed to be working. "You must help your father with the firewood! He has been waiting for the past hour."

Yuri sighed in dismay before again smiling down at his little sister, who held his hand and looked up at him with a frown. "Don't be sad, now. Wait for me, alright, Mei-Mei? I will be done within the hour, you will see."

Mei smiled back. "...'kay," she replied quietly. She let go of his hand and watched him walk away before turning back and playing with the pebbles, building small piles and pretending they were buildings. She did not doubt her brother; he had always kept his word- to her, at least. He was not so kind to others. But in her presence his cold countenance vanished, and a little selfishly, she was glad it only happened around her.

* * *

Mei stared into the fire with an unusual intensity, crouched before it as she watched it leap to and fro. It was as if some unseen manipulator tossed it this way and that, each time tossing the tongues of flame up as they ate away at the wood underneath it.

"What troubles you, Mei-Mei?" Yuri asked, dropping beside her onto the dusty ground. "You have been quiet as of late." She'd always been quiet, but never around Yuri.

She turned to the boy, eyes troubled. "It is... hard to explain." The feeling had been growing steadily in the pit of her stomach ever since the men and women of the village had managed to defeat the greater daemon that had come to destroy all that lived in the town. The merchants were fewer now, and they brought with them reports of unrest and powerful monsters breaking free from the Forest, wreaking havoc among Humans.

There had not been an Earthmate in their country, this country far in the East, for a hundred years. The children of the earth had an abnormal affinity for combat, and were the only people who could hope to defeat the most powerful monsters without dying in the process. As it was, they had lost so many. Father, Aunt Rin, Uncle Daisuke. The list became steadily longer as the years inched by, and Mei had lost much of her innocence. Nobody in their village left home without a weapon, and most definitely not at night- every time a more powerful monster escaped, the regular ones grew even more violent.

Except Yuri, who never seemed to fear the night nor the monster-infested forests and valleys that surrounded them. He would venture into them at all hours, often returning with grisly- but needed- prizes. The milk of Buffamoos was one of the tamer ones, not to mention the vines of the plants or the treasures of the goblins. So it had been that their village had gotten off better- it was Yuri who brought them supplies. Her big brother was the village hero, a far cry from the pariah who had ghosted about the small, dusty streets of Shimachi.

Kinuyo, the local bully, had spontaneously developed an obsessive admiration for her old target. She spent most of her time trying to get Mei's poor big brother to 'teach her how to fight'... via meals that _always _incorporated lover snapper in some fashion.

With a start, Mei realized she had missed something Yuri had said- it was evident by his amused expression. Patiently, he quirked an eyebrow. "Tell me what you can."

She flushed, somewhat embarrassed to have been caught in a place of her own. Surveying her brother seriously, she struggled to express what she wished to say. "I.. there will be more, won't there?"

Yuri seemed to understand, and he grew solemn as well. More monsters- more fighting, and more deaths. Fixing her with the same searching stare he'd been subjected to but a moment ago, he nodded. "Yes. There will be, and more and more of the strong ones will be drawn to a place where so many before them failed."

"Will it ever end?"

"Only if we give in, my sister. And our kind does not go quietly." His eyes gleamed in the firelight.

Mei nodded in acceptance. They were human, renowned for unending willpower in the face of trial. Her brother was right, and it gave her some hope- hope that all would end well.

Their mother, in the shadow of the doorway, did not have the heart to tell them that another monster had been sighted coming for the village just a few minutes ago- and that it was too close for them to evacuate. Already picked up the scent of people, old Yang (he had moved in from the next country over only five years previous) had said grimly.

Monsters did not go against humans without due cause. And there were whispers on every eave that something terrible had happened to one of the Elder Dragons- which one, nobody on this side of the world knew but the leaders of the people. And the leaders had been silent for over twenty years.

Minami, mother of Yuri and Mei, turned her head away and went to prepare the evening meal. She would not begrudge her children this small kindness, one bittersweet memory before the storm arrived.

It was only hours away, after all.

* * *

Chaos raged around Mei as she fought desperately against a goblin with a weapon she did not know how to use. It jabbed at her with its twin knives and she twisted just out of reach, stabbing clumsily with her shortsword of iron. Beneath her feet, an orc's severed head rolled by as its soul returned to the Forest. Beside her, another man died- stabbed in the back by another goblin. War cries and terrified shouts filled the air in a cacophony of unwanted noise, and she gasped as a knife managed to cut her cheek.

Some houses were on fire- the wood they were made out of doused with oil. Magic whistled through the air, sparing no being in its path.

A roar echoed in the air, and Mei closed her eyes. The very next moment they snapped open as she threw herself to the ground, only barely dodging a knife through the ribs. "Why?" she questioned shakily as she stood and swung again. Tears blurred her vision, but she shook them away. Not seeing her surroundings could mean certain death. Her hands felt numb. They had been an angry, blotchy red the last time she checked, and the burn on the palm of her hand had hurt worse than the fire itself before she'd ceased to feel anything but the handle of the too-heavy sword. The goblin gave no answer- not that she had expected it to. It only jumped after her again.

"Duck!" yelled someone's voice over the din, and she dropped obediently. Five glowing balls struck the goblin in quick succession, leaving a gruesome injury on its chest. It gargled some sort of death warble and dissolved, its soul disappearing into the night. "Mei, over here-"

She wasted no time in finding the owner of the voice, ducking twice more and weaving around (even under, once) corpses until she reached her mother in a little copse of damaged trees. Minami at once drew the girl into her arms, holding on so tightly Mei feared her bones would break. "Thank the dragons that you are still alive," Minami whispered, healing them both in a wash of green light. "Mei, stay with me."

"Yuri is still out there," Mei said, throat tightening. It felt so _good _that the dull ache in her palm was gone, but that was the only thing that felt _good _at the moment. "Yuri is still fighting."

"Yuri knows what he is doing," Minami replied sharply, and gestured to the two children that Mei hadn't noticed were in the copse until then. "I need help with these two, and I would not see you die because you did not know how to handle a weapon."

Mei bristled, sword still in her hand. "I have used it well enough! Whose fault is it that I was never taught how to wield weaponry _like I wished?"_

"Your own," Minami said coldly. "Your eagerness frightened your father."

And those words were the last thing that Mei heard before a loud scream, louder than the others, rang out across the battlefield. Everything else fell silent. A bright light, brighter than any light before it, illuminated the night sky- and her mother pushed her down to the ground for the nth time.

Then, the world exploded.

* * *

Mei awoke to the sun shining down on her face.

Everything was so _silent. _Deadly silent, with an oppressive, un-nameable _weight _to it. She struggled to sit up. There was a strange weight on her, some force keeping her down. Blindly she shoved whatever it was off of herself and rubbed at her eyes, trying to gather her bearings.

And promptly recoiled. Memories of the last night came rushing back.

Mei sat in a barren field full of corpses. The copse of trees had been obliterated to ashes. Two children, side by side, were beside her. They stared at the world with unseeing eyes. Didn't she recognize those little children? Twins, weren't they- boy and girl? And hadn't Mother... Sick dread filling her stomach, she slowly looked down. "Mother," she whispered, staring at the face-down body hanging off of her legs. "Mother, wake up."

The body did nothing. It didn't twitch. It didn't move. _It wasn't breathing. _Mei scrambled back hysterically, stumbling over another corpse in the process. "No," she proclaimed in disbelief, looking around. "_No." _They couldn't _all _be dead- they wouldn't have _left her here- _not _Mother, _not-

"_Yuri!" _she screamed.

Several minutes passed with no response. Cold sweat pasted her dirty shirt to her back as she stood.

This _couldn't be happening._

This had to be a horrible nightmare, Mei thought dazedly as she wandered around the bodies. Yes, that was it. She would wake up any time. She just had to wait for the dream to end, and she would be able to flee safely into Yuri's arms.

Mei didn't know when she found the young man with indistinguishable brown hair, no different from any of the others. It wasn't Yuri. She still hadn't found him. Idly, she noted that she'd fallen to her knees- did she care? Mei wasn't sure.

The only reason Mei noticed the dead boy was the snake with the fangs lodged in his throat. It was a sickly green, as if broadcasting to the world how venomous it was, and it looked as though its tail had been quite literally blown apart. A small, limp bit of cartilage hung out from the wreckage.

She let out a heavy breath, feeling herself start shaking. She recognized that snake. It was from _the _Chimera.

Not just any common chimera, the kind with dull green snakes for tails. No. There was only one chimera with that ugly shade for its snake scales, and it was the progenitor of _all _chimera. The realization shocked her out of her dazed stupor and she stood, blind rage making her clench her hands into fists. "You did this," she hissed lowly. "_You're _the cause of all this- this-" she faltered only for a moment before snarling, momentum gathering. "I will _kill you. _I'll hunt you down. I'll find some way to the Forest of Beginnings, I... I... I'll _end _you, you..."

Monster wasn't enough. The Chimera was _worse. _The Chimera had destroyed her town. Her life. Her... family.

* * *

A week later, she'd finished digging all the graves. Her hands were bloody. She hadn't bothered to wash them. She stunk of the dead and of sweat, and the cold winter air still stung at her skin. With a blank face and dead eyes, she gathered all her surviving belongings and stepped onto the road that led southwards.

That was how a lone dwarf found her.

* * *

"Y'know, y'could try _smilin' _a little more," Zeik said idly, running her hands over her bald scalp.

Mei did smile at her. Horribly, with wide eyes that shot daggers at the dwarf woman who had stubbornly accompanied Mei since the day she'd found her half-starved on the road.

Zeik blanched away. "If y'didn' want to, y'coulda _said _somethin'!" she complained, ignoring the sole male of the group's derisive laughter.

"I thought you would know by now, _dwarf," _Erest sneered. "Mei never does anything without a great cause."

"Geesh. Why we gotta keep the token bigot elf with us...?" Zeik muttered, not seeming all that bothered by the blatant baiting. "Can't we find someone less annoyin'?"

"If we did that we'd have to depose of both of you," Mei cut in coldly. "Erest is the only spellcaster. You're the weaponry expert. Now shut up."

"Cold," Zeik whispered, miming a breeze blowing. Mei tried to hasten her pace- perhaps leave the insufferable dwarf behind- but Zeik caught up to her in no time. "Don't leave me here, Mei-Mei!"

Mei went rigid and slowly turned her head to the side, freezing Zeik in place with a stare. _"Don't," _she snarled harshly. "Don't ever call me that again."

"..." Both Erest and Zeik stared at her as she broke into a run.

"Go fix your mistake," Erest finally said weakly, and Zeik followed after Mei.

* * *

"Erest," Zeik whispered in awe seven years later. "Our kid is insane."

"I know. I knew long ago," Erest whispered back as they watched Mei confer with the second most unfriendly Native Dragon that remained in contact with humans. "And yet were she to decide to take over the world, I would help her without question."

_"So," _Terrable said finally, raising his voice for the benefit of the girl's companions. _"You make this choice freely. You understand its weight and its consequences." _Mei nodded. _"Then by the agreed-upon condition, I will grant you your request. Let it not be said that you did not understand your decision."_

He roared, and the room was flooded with yellow light.

_Will you follow?_

Zeik screamed, looking around wildly. Erest held his head as though in great pain. But it was Zeik who had the presence of mind to ask, if in a high, frightened voice.

"...wha?"

_Follow the girl._

"O'course!" Zeik straightened. "I-I-I don't l-leave _anyone _behind, y'k-know!"

"I... I would go to the ends of the earth," Erest managed, teeth gritted.

_So shall it be- you also will receive her gift. Beware its flaw: when it is no longer a gift, you may ask for release and she will have the power to do so._

Zeik felt something _change _within her. Erest felt something push at him.

Across the cavernous room, Mei looked at the snake's fang necklace in her hand with grim determination.

* * *

"Chimera, huh," mused a young dragon priest of Selphia, eyeing the odd trio across from him. He tilted his head to the side, unveiling his fan, and promptly used it to bat away the sticky summer heat from his tattooed face. This was the most interesting group he'd come across in a long time- and they were looking for that strange chimera that had taken up residence not far away from the Divine Wind's town. Ventuswill never said no to those who wished to exterminate the more dangerous monsters around the area. "Well, it so happens that you're in luck. Reports say that the monster's been seen in the valley to the west."

"Is it far?"

Leon smirked. "Not at all. It's just a hop, a skip, and a twenty-minute walk southwest of this very plaza."

"Anything else w'should know?" the bald dwarf questioned.

He considered. "Keep an eye out for the monsters in the valley." A nasty lot, and they'd only grown more dangerous since the chimera had arrived. The castle knights were barely able to keep the population down.

"Leon!" called a young woman's voice from the entrance to the castle. Leon stood straighter, quickly waving at the woman with a bag in her hands before redirecting his attention to his guests. The elf and the dwarf both looked to the human woman, who nodded. Now wasn't that interesting. He was left with little time to his musings, however, for the elf gave him a half-bow.

"We thank you. This will aid us greatly."

"Farewell," the woman nodded at him, and as one the trio turned and made their way to the plaza exit.

Leon watched their departure for a moment longer, then strode to the woman at the castle entrance and smiled down at her. He ignored the blush that bloomed on her cheeks. "And what might we have in the bag today, Maria?"

"Something different," Maria said virtuously, then crumpled in the face of his knowing gaze. "Oh, _fine. _Same as always, I made you lunch. Won't you eat with me?"

"Seeing as we've eaten lunch together every day for the past year," his smirk grew at her pout, "I don't see why not."

* * *

"The Chimera..."

Over Mei's favorite fish (surprisingly enough, masu trout), Raguna muses over the story he has just been told. And takes a contemplative bite of his own meal. Mei maintains a blank face. Zeik and Erest have been off in the Sechs Empire for years now, investigating, and she's finally gotten the point from their letters that hunting the Chimera exhaustively until the end of time may not be the greatest thing for her sanity- and this whole discussion spawned off of those two. Mei pretends not to realize that her story spun out of it because she actually _trusts _this stupid amnesiac somehow.

"It's a lot to take in," Raguna says finally. "But it sounds like you've got it tough."

"Hmph."

"No, really," Raguna says, absently shuffling his watering can around. Why he always carries it on his person, she'll never know. "There's a lot of people who would've gone insane in your situation."

Mei's not entirely sure she _is _sane, but she lets the point rest and switches the conversation to fish before abruptly kicking him out. Raguna only smiles (he's used to these insane people now) and promises to return the following Tuesday with another masu trout.

"You'd better cook it right," she calls after his departing figure.

He waves, not looking back.

"Idiot," she mutters to herself. "Won't stay away." She closes the door on the hallway and sits at the desk, looking at the scattered papers on it, and heaves an annoyed sigh.

She has some letters to reply to.

* * *

**I saw on the wiki that Mei is over a hundred years old, that the Chimera was responsible for the destruction of her homeland, and in the past, she worked with a team of some sort. I don't know the sources for those bits of trivia, but I got to thinking- and writing. Some of this (the beginning at least) is actually an old train of thought I found in an old document from a year back. **


End file.
